Eli Scharlatt Davey is a Ph.D. candidate in political theory, specializing in the German philosophical tradition from 1781 onward, and its implications for social and political philosophy today. His research is driven by questions concerning the relationship between knowledge and politics, the complexity of modern social life, and the power (and limitations) of critical reflection for grounding sound practical judgment. Much of his work approaches these themes through an analysis of conceptual problems in critical theory. His dissertation presents a study of the contemporary Frankfurt School, asking how successfully thinkers like Amy Allen, Rahel Jaeggi, and Fabian Freyenhagen overcome some of the methodological difficulties they diagnose in their predecessors’ approaches to critique. He is also at work on a long-term project on Theodor Adorno’s Negative Dialectics.

Eli holds an A.B. in History from Harvard University and an M.Phil. in History from the University of Cambridge. In addition to his primary academic specialization, he also has extensive training and research interests in Jewish philosophy and religious thought. During his time at Princeton, he co-founded the Princeton Institute for Hasidic Thought (link), an institute for teaching and research in Jewish mysticism.